The second reference to this business (page 212) is described rather differently in the MS.:—
"The cannoneers: Some dayes before this all the ministers except Mr. Hult at the instigation of Capt. Pallmer (who to make up the number had gotten in some mallignant scandalus priests to joyne in petition with them), and likewise most of the captains of the garrison preferred a petition to the Governor and the Committee with such violence against the Cannoneers that they might be turned out of towne that the Governor to prevent a mutiny was forced to make them close prisoners in their chamber till he could receive my Lord Generall's answer concerning them. . . . The Lieft Coll. went immediately to my Lord Generall who . . . sent to the Governor to release the Canoneers." 1
Mrs. Hutchinson had great powers of invective. Will Hall is described in the MS. as "a most zealous enemy of the Governor." In the Memoirs (page 215) the same passage becomes "one Will Hall, a debosht mallignant fellow and thereupon one of the Governor's mortall enemies." In one place in the MS., Colonel Chadwick is described as "a mystery of iniquity;" in the corresponding passage in the Memoirs as "an engine of mischief." Later on, the unfortunate Chadwick is described in the MS. as "a pragmaticall knave," though the expression is omitted from the Memoirs. In the Memoirs (page 244), during the controversy of 1648 at London respecting the Governor's command, Mr. Holles' name, which is not found in the MS., is introduced, and he is described as "a person of honor." By way of balancing this, Mrs. Hutchinson, in the Memoirs, calls Sir Philip Stapleton and Sir Gilbert Garrett "two fierce Presbyterians," though no such phrase is found in the MS.. Palmer, the soldier-minister, is termed "an insolent proud priest" in the MS. in one place, but escapes without remark in the corresponding passage of the Memoirs.
The earlier portions of the MS. contain some additional particulars of the affair at Newark (page 122), which ended disastrously for the Parliamentarians. This is new in the MS.:—
"Mr. Hutchinson told him they had of Nottingham and Derbie men about a thousand horse dragoons and foot, that the Nottingham soldiers were new raised and young souldiers, yet he thought they were resolute, stout men, that the Greycoats of Sir John Gell were exceeding stout and well tried men."
Probably Mrs. Hutchinson omitted the paragraph from the Memoirs, because the exceeding stout and well tried men of Derby beat an early and somewhat precipitous retreat from the scene of battle. The MS. also tells us, as the Memoirs do not, that the Parliamentarians had the misfortune to lose part of their artillery on a later occasion at Newark (Memoirs, page 197):—
"A little Drake was left there with them, which they not having one horse among them to draw away, flung into the river, the Drake on one side, and the carriage on the other, utul then left lighted matches to which they at certeine dintances layd squibbs that should goe off like musketts to deceive the enemy." 2
The MS. contains some new particulars about Slater, the renegade, who was taken prisoner on Trent Bridge (page 191):—
"One Matthew Slater was condemned to be hanged by a councell of warre. He was formerly a souldier of the Governor's when he came first into the Castle, and left his coulours, whereupon the Governor taking him, he made greate expressions of sorrow and contrition for his fault, and promised amendment, and desired to take the Covenant and beare armes still in the Governor's company. The Governor told him if he did it not with a right heart he had much better lay downe armes and worke of his trade than to engage himselfe in such a solemne Covenant and then proove false in it. But he was very desirous to take it, whereupon Captain Pallmer gave it him, and within two or three dayes after he had taken it he went away into the enemies quarters and there remained till the day the Bridges were to have bene surprised by Shellford men and then came to Towne, where he was taken coming over the Bridge mufled close in a mountero cap and kept prisoner till this councell of warre, where in regard of his wilful breach of covenant, he was condemned to death and after hanged."
The fact that Slater had taken the covenant is not mentioned in the Memoirs, and must be regarded as justifying the sentence passed on him; but it is remarkable that Mrs. Hutchinson in neither this nor other similar cases throughout the Memoirs has a word of pity for the man who loses his life as the fortune of war.
The MS. gives additional particulars about the escape of Captain Jammot from the Castle (page 180) :—
"February the 10th. Capt. Lft. Jammot escaped out of prison, having corrupted a soldier of Major Widmerpole's to gett him a disguise in which he, in the twilight, with a mountero cap, a coate, and a musket on his shoulder, escaped away about 7 of the clock at night, and his keeper ranne away with him. The Governor by chance heard of it about ten of the clock, and went downe to send out horse after him, but he found it was done 3 or 4 houres before. Whereupon on Tuesday he called a councill of warre to examine the businesse."
Later on there is a reference to Jammot's second capture, as in the Memoirs (page 195), with the additional information added that he had been "made a major after his escape." Sir Edward Hartup, however, as soon as he hears of Prince Rupert's approach, "went back so shamefully and hastily to Newark that he quitted Melton, and left all the prisoners that were taken by our men at their owne liberty, whereby Jammot had a second cscape." The sequel is given in the MS., but not in the Memoirs:—
"About this time Tomson, the Marshall, was by a Councell of Warre, cashiered for the escape of Jammott, and the undermarshall for the escape of another common prisoner."
Some minor differences between the MS. and the Memoirs as printed may be noticed. In the MS. there is only a brief reference to the death of the Colonel's father, Sir Thomas Hutchinson :—
"Sir Tho. Hutchinson dies: The Governor had newes that his father was dead at London whereupon he sent a drum to Sir Richard Biron, then Governor of Newark for a passe for Major Hutchinson to goe and see my Lady and to bring downe blacks, which passe being sent, he went up to London."
In the Memoirs (page 147), a long passage is interpolated, showing how the death of Sir Thomas made "a greate reverse in the affairs of his eldest sonne." The long description of the Castle which is found in the Memoirs (pages 133 to 135) is not in the MS., though the particulars of how it was provisioned are given, with the further information, "There was an outworke newly made on the foreside of the Castle, the backside lay quite open, bothe towards the Park and the Dovecoate. The Castle was so out of repaire that there was neither roome for quarter nor provision." When the alarm was given that the Newarkers were about to attack the town (page 181), the Colonel "at night sent a bellman to command all men whatsoever not to goe to bed that night, but at the first beate of the drumme to appeare at the parade."
Mrs. Hutchinson tells us in the Memoirs (page 234) that "Castillian" was a term of reproach used against the Governor and his friends in the garrison. In the MS. she adds that under this name they "became more odious than Cavaliers."
One example may be given of Mrs. Hutchinson's method of re-writing her narrative. The following is an extract from the MS.:—
"It being then pretty faire weather, the Governor sent out a foote company on a moon shiney night and gave them a fierce alarum in all their quarters, and went into one of their stables from whence they tooke 12 horses, but sending them home by some boys and they meeting a bodie of above 100 cavaliers left some of their horses and saved themselves—the foote in the meantime met another greate bodie of horse upon whom they discharged all att one time, and as we heard in the morning killed some of them, who immediately after that charge ranne away and would not stay to receive another."
In the Memoirs (page 178) this becomes:—
"After this,the weather being pretty faire, and the moone shining at that time, the Governor sent out a foote companie to beate up their quarters, and gave them a fierce alarum throughout, and took twelve horses out of their stables, which they sent home. In their returne, meeting a greate body of horse, they all at once discharged upon them, and killed some eight of them, as we were told in the morning."
The Rev. Julius Hutchinson, the original editor of the Memoirs, made only two quotations from the MS., one of the passage where Colonel Pierrepont says:— "List into the Castle with John, for soe in a jesting way he used to call Coll Hutchinson" (Memoirs, page 140), and the other the long dialogue relating to the town's powder (pages 82 to 86). Thomas Bailey severely criticized this last passage, and on the evidence of the Borough Records came to the conclusion that the dialogue was "altogether apochryhal, no such event having ever taken place"3 (Annals, page 651). This portion of the MS. has unfortunately disappeared, but there can be no doubt about its authenticity, a fact Bailey himself would at once have admitted could he have seen the original; and though there is no equally long dialogue in the portion in the British Museum, it is interesting to note that in the MS., conversations are frequently reported in the first person which are rendered in the third in the Memoirs. Bailey, not knowing the evidence which is now available, came to the conclusion that the Memoirs had been written many years after the events which they describe. In the MS., however, is one passage which clearly shews that it, as being the earlier version of Mrs. Hutchinson, was written much nearer to the events it describes. In the Memoirs, it is stated that after the successful attack on the town from Newark, Dr. Plumtre went out of Nottingham with the enemy, and "after retired to Derby." In the MS., Mrs. Hutchinson writes, immediately following this passage, "where he yet remains."4 Plumtree was allowed to return home the following year, Mr. Millington having made intercession on his behalf (Memoirs, page 217); from which it is clear that the MS. was written within twelve months of the events it describes. A simple explanation of the detailed passage about the town's powder is that Mrs. Hutchinson, feeling the importance of the occasion, obtained from the Colonel an exact account of what took place, and committed it to writing at the time or shortly after. Of the general truth of Mrs. Hutchinson's narrative, so far as she describes what she herself saw or was told by reliable eye-witnesses, there can be no question. It is only fitting that this paper should conclude with an expression of its writer's gratitude to Professor C. H. Firth, not only for the assistance which all readers get from his edition of the Memoirs, but for a special kindness received on a visit to Oxford, which was as unexpected as it has been helpful.5
(1) It is worth noting that in the affair at Trent Bridge (page 167, Memoirs), the MS. gives special praise to the work of the Cannoneers:—
"The cannoneers were very brilliant in this service, & played their cannon with either brest worke or cannon basketts in the plaine open medow. Mr. Hooper was very ingenieous and active in this service & ventured himself more than could be expected from him."
(2) This passage occurs in the account of the defeat of the Parliament forces at Newark, which Bailey gravely questioned (Annals, page 722), suggesting that it was written "from memory many years after the transactions occurred." Mrs. Hutchinson's story in the MS., which was written shortly after the event, is substantially the same as in the Memoirs.
(3) Professor Firth examines this subject fully, and shows that Bailey has made the mistake of confusing the town's powder with the county's powder.
(4) Curiously enough, Thomas Bailey was able to fix the date of the Memoirs by a somewhat similar passage relating to another event (Annals, page 906). He placed the date of their composition as between 1663 and 1671, which agrees with the assumption made earlier in the paper that they were inspired by the publication of the Memoirs of the Duke of Newcastle in 1667.
(5) Some unpublished letters relating to the progress of the Civil War in Nottinghamshire were printed in the Nottingham Guardian of August 21st, 1913, from copies made by Professor Firth from the originals contained in the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library.